Four Years of Anti-COVID-19 Regulations in Greece: Overview of the Legislative and Regulatory Process and of an Exemplary Administrative Codification

Abstract

In the 25th of February 2024, four years since the first Act of Legislative Content of the Greek Government concerning the prevention and limitation of the spreading of coronavirus COVID-19 were completed. The regulatory production of this period is huge and has a series of unique characteristics with prevailing one the use of means of extraordinary legislation as foreseen in the Greek Constitution. All these measures are presented in a consolidated form in the “Special Administrative Codification of urgent regulatory measures to prevent and limit the spreading of coronavirus COVID-19 and to deal with relevant problems” under the short name of PANDEKTIS, conducted by the Department of Administrative Codifications – Raptarchis of the Secretariat General for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs of the Presidency of the Greek Government. The study of this monumental work gives rise to very interesting findings, about the way Hellenic Government handled the Pandemic crisis. This article presents the law-making process and the process of issuing secondary legislation during the Pandemic, its quantitative and qualitative characteristics with special comment on the fulfillment of the rules and principles of Better Regulation and discusses the use of administrative codification as a means of reflecting an holistic picture of the regulatory production during a period of crisis.